November 15, 1999:

Starting to not make much sense, the way these weekends of tolerable fishing are following week days of fair to good fishing. I can blame it on the fact that we are having tournaments most weekends through Thanksgiving, but that offers little consolation. Fishing was pretty good, right up until the tournament started on Thursday night, from there, the action was in decline for the course of the weekend. I don't fish Sunday night, but when I used to, it was usually the best night of the weekend, being that the tournament had ended at noon...I am pretty certain the fish have the tournament schedule jotted down somewhere. This weekend was hit or miss, in a big way, either you had them every cast, or you casted 100 times between hits.

We started on Friday night driving north to the scene of a good trouncing earlier in the day...John and Phil were among the fortunate few to get in on the massacre inside the Raritan Bay...on a big bar I like to think I discovered...whether it's true or not, we'll never know, but I've never seen anyone fish it before, not in 10 years in that area. Regardless, they caught fish the way everyone deserves to in the fall, which is a good thing, just prior to this most successful of trips, they were trying to decide who kept bringing along the skunk when they went fishing together! They did well, catching numerous keepers to 15#, stopping only for lunch (a sign of weakness for sure!), and continuing the assault until darkness descended. I was pleased to hear of this action, for two nicer guys you would be hard pressed to find...not to mention the lengthy drives home, they always feel longest when you don't score! Charlie and I decided an after-dark foray in that area would possibly produce, but after the drive up, I realized that I had, in fact, gotten the tides a little screwed up...I checked my tide watch again...indeed, it was off by the better part of an hour and we missed the tide! Plan B, which was a good long drive south, past even our starting point. We made the most of it by taking a few exploratory casts along the way, but the tide was "wrong", which puts you at more of a perceived disadvantage than an actual disadvantage, but in this game, confidence and expected results are often very important. We did the drive....

Many, many more people fishing the area than prior trips, but we figured we'd give it a shot anyway. We found some room and began our assault on the fish with the Smilin' Bills and small shad bodied jigs. We had hits on nearly every cast, for about 45 minutes, then came the scourge...someone had seen us trying to quietly slip a fish back into the water, so they got as close as they dared and began to cast a light jig over our lines on nearly every other cast. See, jig fishing is not a cast it out, bring it in affair, much as many don't know this. It's a cast above the structure, work the jig through the likely holding water, then let it swing across the face of any fish down and across. So, when you are casting a lot of line, fishing the jig correctly, and then retrieving, you are covering some water...a guy close below you casting short and upcurrent is bound to mess up your cast every time. This gets old quick, some people don't understand this fishing thing and explaining it to them often puts you in a bad light. Just as this was really beginning to bother me, a boat peels off the drift, pulls right into the shallow rip, puts his Q-beam on us, the jetty, the water all around and continues to light up the entire area, obviously for no other reason than sheer stupidity...for a good 15 minutes, then motors up the shallow rip for a finishing shot...that was it, not another hit. Obviously, this place is not for me on weekends. Charlie had taken an 18 1/2# with a small jig, other than that, all fish were respectable shorts...up to 27 1/2". We moved around some more in the area, but all we found were shorts.

Saturday night, MikeP is slated to hook up with us, we decide north would be more convenient. We arrange a meeting place inside the Hook and Charlie and I are there. We managed to sneak a half dozen fish out of spot where four unlucky anglers had been for hours without a hit, they are not amused and stomp off. It's a jig thing, if you aren't using them and aren't using them correctly, you aren't catching. Plugs won't reach the fish, jigs are the only tool sometimes. The tide dies out, we hang out anyway, turns out Mike hit some traffic, but shows up only a few minutes late. It's funny how much Mike feels like an old friend, yet it was only a year ago December that we first hooked up...literally and figuratively. We had arranged a meeting south of me, for a drive on the beaches...no sooner that warm December day did we clear the dunes than we saw the fish all over the place. We caught plenty of fish that afternoon, on many different things, I even broke out the fly rod for a little action...it is still fresh in my mind a year later. Anyway, Mike's here, we try another little rip I saw forming on the incoming, but again, the tides "wrong" and no fish are taken. We decide another long drive south might be in order. After the long drive, Charlie decides a nap is in order, so Mike and I grab our stuff and give it a shot. First cast or so, I got creamed. This was my first time fishing this spot on the incoming, I was pleased to see how the main current flow avoided the area we fished, the current was moving at a perfect speed to throw the Smilin' Bills...I missed 4 or 5 hits before I stuck the first short. Then another, and maybe another. Mike is confident they will eat his Fin-S, and in short order, they begin to whack it...and he sticks one. We caught a few fish here, but we had loads more hits than stuck fish, and they were all short. The tide was now dying so I suggest another spot. We walk there. On the way, we note what slobs some bait fishermen are, leaving crap all over. We get to the spot I had in mind, took a few casts, I missed one. That was it, we talked as the tide was dying to nothing, decided it best to get Mike on the road, 150 miles to his home...and it's pushing 1:30am. We walk back, I wake Charlie and we say our good-byes to Mike and he's on the way. Mike is certainly a brave soldier, I told him the tide would be wrong here, but he wanted to add it to his list of places he'd been, so he came anyway. After rousing Charlie from a warm truck, he proceeded to put on half the jackets in the truck! Sleeping people are warm, and the wind had kicked up a bit and there was a chill in the air. We made our way out to where Mike and I left off. I stuck one right away, a decent one, but it had other plans than a ride home in my cooler and came unbuttoned. I landed a short right after that...Charlie soon after that. We caught about 5 or 6 shorts, no keepers and having beaten ourselves up with all the driving this weekend, decided it was in our best interest to head home, it was now almost 5am. Turns out JimK, Geoff, and Dave Choi were all out there as well, I thought I saw JimK's truck, but dismissed this as we were much farther south than I had ever seen Jim. They were there however as an e-mail pointed out on Sunday morning. We missed them.

So, what a weekend, 2 keepers for Charlie and I, 9 pounds and 18 1/2 pounds...how sad is that? We had been scoring a few between 12-17# each trip, accompanied by many in the 8-10 pound class, but we caught mostly shorts during this tournament. That's the way these things go! There were a lot of fish caught by others in the backs of the bays and rivers, but not too many for us. Oh well, there's always next week! Next trip Mike, we fish in the daylight, just for a change of pace.

I'll be putting up 3 more picture pages today, along with most of the Smilin' Bill pages. Thanks for your continued encouragement, I look forward to reading the guest book each day! Also, I'd like to encourage you to click on the only banner I have on my site, that for Gofishin'! I like these people, I have turned a few guys on to them in the past. The person there I've had contact with, Dave, is a super guy, willing to not only answer questions, but to help you out with any specifics you need to know about any items. They buy out tackle and fly shops, then sell the stuff at an excellent discount. I've purchased rods, reel, lures, lines, and lots of fly stuff there, never had a problem. If you do decide to order from them, I only get my "cut" if you do so from the banner above, and I really do appreciate it!

The initial jig pages are up, more coming soon!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

November 16, 1999:

Didn't get out yesterday, or on Sunday...that's two days in a row...and there's a fair chance that this evening won't see me about. To many, this doesn't sound odd, but to me, I feel like a weekend-warrior! Only fishing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at some point....that's just over half the week! At the moment, the only reason Wednesday is being tossed into the equation is that I need a feel for what to do for the tournament weekends. Thankfully, there are but two more tournaments, then we're done till spring when it starts all over again. The weather has certainly took a turn for the cooler side of fall, it's 32 degrees outside at the moment, that's enough to keep your cheeks red and plenty cold enough to numb your fingers should you start handling wet stripers prior to their release. I love it when it gets cold...not winter cold, but late fall cold...it keeps the warm weather fishermen home, ensures that the fish are in high gear headed south, and it seems like it's always dark out. When that part of fall arrives, it is a good time to get out and fish...not for night long trips, but for a couple hours at a time. It's usually December by then, maybe better than midway through December before I start to fish these short trips for mostly small bass. It's a good way to end the season around Christmas time, start to wean yourself with shorter and more infrequent trips in early December...then maybe once a week by Christmas time...then, one day, you just don't feel like bothering at the moment, and your season is over. All this talk of how to end a season is making me sad, let's get back to the fishing!

There are some pretty big fish around, spread out and mixed in with all the many smaller ones. This is the time of year that the biggest fish and the smallest fish seem to not mind swimming with each other. It's a time for the unlikely to happen more frequently. It's even the time where I try to get out in the daylight a couple times. The bunker and bass are moving to the south, but at the same time, they are feeding heavy in the Raritan Bay and the associated river systems. There are packs of nuts continuing their migration and packs of bass intercepting them along the way, with packs of beach running surf nuts to intercept the bass...it's these that worry me...a grown man willing to break into a full out run with all his gear on a crowded beach in the hopes of reaching the birds before they go down, is likely a man who won't think twice about hauling off a distance cast with a multi treble hooks popper in quarters that are too tight...and people get hooked, some get angry..it's best to keep your composure. Even if the birds go down, it's not a big deal, the fish are still there, they don't disappear, they can't move as fast as the birds, and in general, the bigger ones will linger around...so, unless you're after birds, stop all the running and endangering people! I heard a sad story about a little girl who got a pencil popper in her face by her younger brother because dad was paying more attention to the birds than to what his children were doing...now she'll carry those scars for life...hope dad caught those bluefish he was probably chasing down the beach! It's sad, there are just too many people fishing. If everyone took a minute to think about what they were doing out there, more deep breathing maybe, less accidents would happen, tempers might not flare as quickly. I don't want to go into all the do's and don'ts right now, because in reality, all they are is suggestions....there are no laws. I'll address these another time.

It seems the daytime bite is coming back on strong in the ocean, with the night bite being king in the inland waters. I don't know how we did in this past tournament yet, but I'll guess we places second or third...it's hard to guess how many guys caught what, but I'm pretty sure we held our own! We had three new guys this tournament and when you're a small club, every one is welcome! Tonight I will think about going fishing, just to save you from another morning of my ramblings....

Thanks again to all who have come here, ordered here, hung around and checked things out. I am still working on it daily. Things coming very soon...message board, credit card ordering on-line, more jig pages, and an article on how to fish inlets. If anyone has any more suggestions, I encourage you to fire them off the me and I'll get right on it! Thanks again....

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

November 17, 1999:

Almost...I almost got out last night...I plotted, I had mentally pictured the hard NW wind pushing water up just right in a place I've been haunting...I even had changed some plans...but then, I checked out the forecast. I know it was supposed to be cold and windy, but that's fall, and as an e-mail I received this afternoon from Rich (Hardy) stated "The cold be damned!" But then, as I knew I still had a couple hours work, some web stuff to do, and some orders to package up...the revelation that the wind chill would be around 10 sent the chill of reality up my spine and I realized that I would, in fact, remain warm and cozy. I didn't go. No fishing report other than I am hearing that the day bite continues, seems like the fish are doing their regular fall thing, moving around, feeding hard and visible. It also seems like it's pretty wide spread, you just need to get out in the daylight and look around. A good place to start might be Asbury and then poke around on your way south. The northern stretches from Sandy Hook through Long Branch would also warrant a peek. This time of year it can be so different from day to day that I'd hesitate to put any merit on any information that is more than 2 tides old...that goes equally for a bad report and a good report. Where the fish were or were not this morning does not mean that they will or won't be back there this afternoon. Don't get fooled by reports, the last thing I want to know is how many or few some other guys caught in a place I'm intending to go. It's not that an excellent report doesn't get me going like the rest of you folks, it's just that as fast as things happen this time of year, I hate to have my mental plan altered by a real good or real bad report. To give a report and credence there are a few things that you have to submit to. First, to accept a bad report as fact you must believe that the person giving you the report is as good or better an angler than you and they tried all the things and places in an area you would have tried. I can hardly get over this hurdle as I will try things in a given situation that few others short of the great Bass Dozer himself would do. I've also become accustomed to the most negative reports coming from guys that only rate the fishing by how many birds hit the water in their immediate area...not on the likelihood of catching fish or the conditions at hand, but on the birds and breaking fish....I ain't fishing for birds! Without trying to sound like I'm tooting any horns, I'd also hazard to say that during most trips where there are any people fishing, Charlie and I will usually catch plenty of fish while often not a single fish is caught by the others in the area. For example, we were fishing a big jetty last week, there were about 4 other guys within sight...not one caught a fish...even after they closed in on us like we had all the fish in front of us...yet Charlie and I caught a dozen or so. It's not that we had the fish in front of us, we moved a bit when we started feeling pinned down, it's just that we were working the water and the other guys were apparently just firing and reeling...firing and reeling. This is not how you work the water, it's merely casting practice! To work moving water you must first picture in your mind where the fish "should" be...the you station yourself above that hold and fish your lures so they swim through the hold. You don't want to fire for the spot and crank in your lure, this is totally unnatural. It really helps to close you eyes, put yourself where you think the fish are, then picture how a hurt or free drifting food would approach the fish...it's not from behind at a high rate of speed. The most believable approach would be quartering and down towards the hold. If you position yourself so that if you point at the place you think the fish are you are pointing at about 1:30, with noon being straight out from you. This is the best angle to start. Cast straight out, close up the reel, turn the handle slowly...your lure, whatever it is, is now on track for a believable entrance to where the fish "should" be. It will come into the area drifting with the current towards the fish, but also moving towards you...a very believable approach. This simple blurb should be etched in your mind...use it in rivers, inlets, beaches...wherever there is current. If you can put the lures in front of the fish in a believable manner, more fish will accept it...period. Back to reports...don't put too much confidence in them, unless it's a phone call that they are RIGHT NOW killing them and you can get there in very short order...those reports you can count on...except don't count on the fish sticking around till you get there, they may have other plans!

Tonight, God willing, I will get out, I will be looking only for big fish...but I will gladly take a few smaller ones along the way to keep things interesting. This is the time of year that anything can happen at any place at any time, there are basically no rules now. I won't be able to get out and chase the birds in the daylight, I will have to find them without the birds...such as I prefer it. I have been neglecting the areas up north and opting for southern waters, but I understand that things are happening in many different places both during the day and at night. I'm hoping that NW wind drops to 10kt or so as it's supposed to be cold again tonight.

I am writing this at an obscene hour of the night, I will add to it in the morning. I am only putting it up now as I am not certain when I will get a chance to do so in the morning. Hope everyone is getting out there more than I am! ::))

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

November 18, 1999:

I just hung up the phone at 9am, it seems that the oceans are having an little streak here, fish being taken yesterday and today from Manasquan on south. There's some nice fish to 40" being caught, right now, as I type...so if you can, grab your stuff, head south, and get those rods bent...it's on right now!

Ok, got out last night, JohnM met me here, we spooled up some fresh Whiplash on spinning reels, I made some hybrid jigs, grabbed a bag of Smilin' Bills and got started. We decided to fish south, there's been loads of fish south hitting the beaches in the daytime, some at night....but I was looking for just a couple fish, very big fish. The only thing I didn't have with me that I will next time is some live eels...just a couple, the big fish can't resist them. So, John and I get to the jetty, suit up and realize that it's not as cold as you would think...I mean low 30's sounds bad, but it's really not that cold. The prior night with the wind chill around 10, that's too cold!

We walked out, picked a likely looking spot and started fishing...in short order, you could hear them breaking in the dropping tide, just like we had expected. I really thought it was going to be easy, no brainer, every cast type fishing...but it wasn't. Unfortunately, I only stuck 3 or 4 before the dropping tide that had them feeding voraciously began to weaken...then the breaks got fewer and fewer till the whole area was mostly silent. Poor John, I told him to bring a substantial spinning rod, I forgot to tell him to make sure it was smooth and in good order. He showed up with a big old Daiwa 7000 silver spinning reel that makes a sound like a handful of bolts in a food processor when you turn the handle! It was awful!! I have never been a big fan of reels that make any noise, none...not even drag noises when there's a fish on it...I don't need to hear some screaming noises to let me know I have a fish on, I can tell, it's on my rod! The drag noises are pretty much just so all the people within earshot can come running over when they hear the drag going...and who needs that? So, John's got this giant silver clunky reel...but it works, so he's fishing with this thing and it just sounds painful to me. I'm trying to picture in my head what something that makes so much noise must feel like when you are retrieving...and much as I try, I refuse to believe that there's the smallest chance that it feels absolutely smooth. That's why John was having problems hooking up last night, the fish were out far and hitting light...if you weren't intimately aware of what your jig was doing, you were missing hits. The fish were there, they weren't committing suicide, you had to earn each one. There were some of the ones out there that cause me to lose sleep...I could hear them and I was getting wound up, but as the tide slackened, so did my hopes of getting a shot at a mule...at least for that night. John had a couple shots there...I think he had more but the big, clunky silver reel was fighting him! I landed 4 there, another perfect specimen out further on the jetty. I need to pay that fish a compliment, it was no doubt a future 50, long as it stays out of the nets. It was the most perfectly built striper that I have seen in years. It was maybe 12#, but only 29 or so inches, but it certainly had the genes to be a contender for the record one day...again, so long as it avoids the gauntlet of nets that are awaiting down south. What a beautiful fish. It turns out, many of the fish we would catch a little later were shaped just like that...and it's not just that they were fat, it was the build of their entire bodies. They were deep, thick and strong....very unique. They have been eating good, no doubt, but this was genetic, I hope they all get a chance to breed before they are commercially "harvested."

So, we threw jigs, we walked around some, threw plugs. As we were leaving we came across some surface action, yet they were a little funny here as well. After going through a few different things that I'm pretty sure should have worked, I only had a couple bumps to show for, when I went back to what I started with, a 3/4 oz Smilin' Bill, I got a hit on 5 consecutive casts. I found this odd, as both John and I were throwing this same lure when we got to this spot and didn't get a sniff out of the fish, now they were killing it! Sometimes you just gotta keep throwing what you think is the right thing, no matter if you already tried it once...it just works that way. Strangely, John could not hook one, though they were molesting his jig on occasion...again, I'm pointing at the clunky spinning reel, I've seen John hook fish, he knows how to do it, I just don't think he could feel them! Being the sport he is, John didn't lose his cool, didn't let it bother him, didn't even make any remarks...maybe he was just tired! ::)) This was odd, as usually, John will express himself quite well, and I was waiting for him to start bashing this reel on the ground! The fish stopped breaking, stopped hitting, just long enough that we thought we'd split...but before we could even grab our other rods, they started again...and some decent sized fish. I call these "Sucker Fish", as you were all set to go home, get warm, grab some shut-eye...and as my favorite Texan says, "poke a sandwich down my neck"...but these sucker fish sucker you into staying. I've seen it a thousand times, it's just the same fish thinking that causes them to keep you around by giving you a good shot on what was proclaimed you last cast. I don't know why they want to keep you around, but they must, the "sucker fish" and good shot on the last cast are two tricks they perform regularly. So, back to the sucker fish, they got us to stay. I retaliated by hooking another half dozen or so, another decent one and missing a bunch. Each time we pretended to leave, they pretended to want us to stay...it was kinda like they wanted us there. Poor John with the clunky reel, he stuck a few here, but they came unbuttoned...John reminded me that sometimes your the dog and sometimes your the hydrant! It's one of those things, I give John a lot of credit, he handled it far better than I would, I get a little cranky if I can't stick one but someone else is...John gets the sportsman of the week award for sure! I'll bet he's hurtin' today, we got in late.

Tonight another tournament starts...so I'll be napping after work till maybe 11:30, then it's out into the cold...again, just two more tournaments and it's over. We did well in the last tournament, scored a second behind the very large Asbury Club...our band of merry anglers is certainly scoring well as of late. We don't have many guys, but we certainly have some fine fishermen among us! Everyone's fish counted this past tournament as we scored second by only a few pounds. Still, we'd like to win each one, but second to the bigger club is often a good consolation prize!

Thanks again to everyone for their continued encouragement and excellent input...not to mention those orders! May all your rods be bent and all your fish be LARGE!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

November 19, 1999:

Well, after the show the fish put on for us the night before, I felt compelled to head to the same area and look for some of the big fish that I heard but did not stick from the prior night. There were some real big fish breaking the night before, but it appeared that we had missed the tide, we planned better for last night. Sadly, it didn't matter...we got there with plenty of tide left to drop, lots of dark, all things looked great...but the fish, every single one of them, were gone! I swear, it was as if a spaceship (commercial netter) has sucked up (poached, killed) all the bass! I understand that fish move, but fish that have been around for weeks, a spot that I have never gone home with the skunk before...ever. It just seemed odd that there were a couple scattered breaks over a wide area where the night before it was alive with action. Charlie and I had maybe 3 or 4 hits a piece, not one stuck...none landed...none lost! It kinda makes me feel like the gamble last night was complete loss, the day bite yesterday was one like not seen at least since last fall...fish were taken from Sandy Hook through IBSP...and some decent fish as well. Being the sadist that I am, I may just poke around this afternoon for a couple hours before dark, then it's back to the same place where last night I could not get my hands stinky...it's just that kinda spot. It's like the gambler in AC, they have this one slot machine...every time they are there, they put a couple quarters in it...it just calls them, it feels good...then after so many trips and so many quarters, it hits! This is kinda my plan...

Back to the fishing yesterday, not my escapades, for they were in vain, but the efforts of all who ventured out during the day were duly rewarded. I was warned a little before 9 am yesterday by MikeY that things were reaching a fever pitch, but I couldn't make it. I was warned again at about noon when Mike called to say he couldn't take any more and was going to rest and get some grub...I was reminded again in the mid afternoon. It seems that almost anywhere you looked and anything you threw, you had action yesterday. I am hoping that this continues through today and into tomorrow...not for me, but for all of you who can't get out there until the weekend, no matter what...it's your turn, this could easily be your weekend to get bit! I wouldn't even recommend a certain area, from the sounds of it and the reports I heard first hand, you just needed to be near the surf and look around, the signs were very visible. Saturday will unfortunately be a nice day, moderate temps, possibly even clouds and rain I just heard....anything short of rain will bring droves of anxious bird chasers to the beach, if you don't like crowds, stay a little north...maybe a lot north. It's pretty easy to figure where the masses will be, check B&N's Report this afternoon...check the Asbury Park Press and Star Ledger fishing reports....whichever sounds the most optimistic, usually the "fish story" told in the Star Ledger is enough to make me forget how bad the fishing really was and practically makes me head for the party boat conditions of the spots they scream about...don't fall for it....go somewhere that you don't read about in any of those information floods! First off, they are basically propaganda targeted at bringing people to the shore to fish, which is not a bad thing. Second, unless otherwise stated, the fish appearing in the Ledger column will appear to all have been caught the day before...this is done to make you forget that you are reading about an entire weeks catches in a format that makes it sound like an all out massacre! I've never liked lying by omission, but in effect, this is what's sort of being done...but, it's America, people will do what they want.

So, it's the third week in November, Thanksgiving is upon us in just 6 days, Christmas is just over a month away...and the bunker and bass are putting on the feedbag! It's getting colder out now, you need to be prepared for chilly fingers and rosy cheeks...but that's what fall is about, not sweating profusely and wondering if you should bring something with a hood...fall is all about hoods, finger-less wool gloves, runny noses, and cold toes! With the cold you get more space to fish, it's almost directly proportional and is very predictable. I don't mind the very cold weather...well, actually I mind it a little more each year as I get older...I also mind it a little more if I've already had a killer fall! The hard winds and the very cold will keep me home if my anticipation of big fish is waning, but at this point in the fall, the big fish meter is peaked...big fish at any place and any time during the next couple weeks..then we will drift into a period of mixed sized fish with less and less big fish begin taken..then it will be 95% smaller fish...but there's always a chance, some possibility, no matter how remote, of hanging that fish you've been looking for all year just when you thought your chances had disappeared. I've seen 25 pound fish taken at Christmas time, had good fishing right up till New Years any year I've tried. It really doesn't end anymore until you decide to stop. For the most part, I'll fish till almost Christmas...I love those cold still nights in mid December, the spearing are spread out all over the beaches and you just crawl little Mambo minnow on the top and the fish will take them with an audible splash...just in time to shake the chill from your fingers and to put those thoughts of quitting back where they belong in the dark recesses of your mind...it ain't over yet you remind yourself as you blow on your fingers to try and warm them up after you let go that fat 10 pounder you just caught...and you wind up to cast again...so it goes for the real striper junkies out there...I'll be that other guy you keep seeing out there on those real cold still nights...stop and say hi.

Well, the weekends certainly upon us, I just got a phone call that confirms the weekends arrival..the fish didn't storm the beaches for the first time in three days...they know when people plan a long weekend! It's almost predictable anymore, good fishing on the one trip during the week only to be met with tough times for the weekend, I sometimes wonder how the fish know! I don't think it will last, the amount of fish around over the past 3 days is mind numbing, they'll hit the suds again, probably before the day's out. I know I'll be out there in the late afternoon giving them a go. I don't really like fishing in the daylight, but I do need to get some new pictures for the picture pages, so I'll suffer through the hammerheads and the diving birds, just for the sake of some pictures! If they ever make a camera you can carry in your wader pocket, weighs 4 ounces, doesn't need a flash to take pictures at night, is water and weather proof...then I'll have thousands of pictures...for now, my thousand dollar camera doesn't make to many trips to the water at night, I know that would be the night where I take a header...I don't mind soaking myself, but drowning my camera would certainly ruin the evening. Hope you can all get out this weekend and find some of these fish. I'll try to put up a report tomorrow morning, sometimes on Saturday morning I can barely remember how to get home, much less push all these buttons! :))

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

November 21, 1999:

The weekend is passed, talk about disappointing for the most part! After Thursday's coast wide, all day massacre, you would think that the fishing over the weekend would at least be tolerable! It wasn't. We started Friday night down in LBI...not really 100% certain why I forced myself back down there, the fishing on Thursday night was downright sad with neither Charlie or myself scoring one single unicorn. Ever the optimist and only looking for a couple good fish, not a load of shorts, we figure to give it a shot. Everything looked great on our arrival, there were only a couple people wandering around, wind was not too bad, air temp was not too cold. The tide was screaming out, pulling much harder than normal, I like that. We fished a couple spots near where we parked, but not a thing, not a hit, not a break. It seems we have seen the best and the worst of this place, we have been there nights when breaking fish filled your ears through both tides, we have been there when you saw and heard nothing throughout the entire night...this night was one of the latter. We had a couple hits on jigs as we were making our way out on the jetty, but stuck none. It was depressing, two nights in the same spot with not one fish to show for our efforts...we suspected they were there, we knew they were in the neighborhood as the boats were taking them off the beach. As it turned out, I finally stuck one, a long walk from the truck, on one of my hybrid eel jigs. It was a decent fish, a good fight in the steaming current, and a fat one. It went in the cooler. That was it, that was the only fish we stuck Friday night...or Saturday morning. On the way home, we decided a peek at the beaches was in order. Stopping in Ortley to air down, we hit the sand in hopes of a couple shots at some fish before we collapsed. It was not to be, there were hundreds of other optimistic anglers, but not a striper was caught, not a bunker was seen. We drove from Ortley up to the end of Brick Beach...exited the beach, and headed home. Being that we had a tournament, I stopped to get a weigh-in slip for my fish, it was about 32" long but weighed a full 14# 4oz, it was a fat one! I gave it to a nice man at the tackle shop, he was thankful.

So, when Saturday night rolled around, where do you think we went? That's right, back to the same place where we had now put in two nights of fishing for just one fish...talk about sadistic. Well, the decision was pretty easy easy when the weigh-in log at the Fishermen's Den showed that after the second day of the tournament, mine was the only fish weighed in there. I knew where most of the guys in our club were fishing, if they were not scoring, I wasn't going to bother fishing there as well. Back to LBI...the 50 mile drive is starting to become natural. This night was a little different luckily, we started to work our way out a bit, but found a nice rip that deserved some casts. We both had hits in short order, so we stuck it out there for a bit. I ended up with 2 shorts there, Charlie the same...and we both missed a few others, a big change from the prior two nights of drought there! Renewed optimism coursed through my veins, but we didn't get another hit as the tide turned to come in...not a bump in 2 more hours of casting and lots of looking around. There was one more spot to check, a spot I've been scoring on the incoming water. Sure enough, a few minutes of experimenting there and the fish were found. I hooked one, a decent one, but half way in it just came unbuttoned...as I stopped reeling to verbally express my dissatisfaction, another one creamed the jig...and I landed it. It was a short, but it was also the only one in a couple hours, it was welcomed and released. A few casts later, I figured out where they were sitting and what they were eating, we caught a bunch more, Charlie landed one 31 1/2" and 11 1/2#...I lost another decent one near the rocks. There was a nice guy who was now fishing just above us. He was sort of cheering us on with each fish. As people would walk by and ask him if he was catching anything, he would reply "No, but those guys are killing them!" After a few people, I asked him if he would please just tell them nothing about what we were catching as they weren't asking us. He laughed and said "It's all luck! Tonight you guys got the luck!" I laughed, feeling kinda sorry for this guys outlook on striper fishing, it made me realize that this kind of thought process was probably very common. He then asked if we had caught anything else that night, I assured him that we had, I said "Yes, it's funny, we seem to get lucky in a lot of places." It seems that this nice guy just figured that luck is the deciding factor in striper fishing. While it may be lucky to walk up and take a 25# bass on your first cast in an otherwise dead surf, catching many stripers in the current at night when no one else is has absolutely nothing to do with luck. Actually, it may have been lucky that I threw that first cast into a place where I hadn't ever taken one before...it may have been luck that I let the jig settle more than normal, it may have been luck that a bass bumped it as it sank...after that, we'll take full credit for each hit after that, as the casts and drifts were then deliberate, expecting a hit each time. At one point, I got snagged, I gave the rod a good hard shot to try and free it, my Penn 6500 slammed backwards and locked up...something inside it had snapped, locked the reel up, and had put my long casts out of business. I grabbed the conventional but could no longer reach the little spot the fish had taken up residence in. Charlie missed a couple more hits, but then, as it neared daybreak, "rude-thirty" I call it...the hammerheads decided we were fishing in their spot and surrounded us, short casts all over in front and over us...it was time to go home, weigh Charlie's fish and get to sleep. We didn't even drive the beaches, just weighed the fish and went home.

The Penn 6500 is now inside to be dismantled and repaired tonight. The second fish, Charlie's fish, was given to a different nice guy at the tackle shop we weighed it at, he was extremely thankful for he had never caught a keeper and had never had the chance to eat one. He thanked Charlie up and down for being so kind. It's nice to be able to put such a smile on someone's face so easily, and now we didn't have to worry about filleting the fish. Off to sleep on that fine foggy Sunday morning.

Didn't fish last night, it was Sunday. Unless I hear of something extraordinary going on, I won't be out again until Wednesday night. This time it's our clubs tournament, starting at 5pm on Wednesday and continuing through till Sunday at noon, it's the longest one of the whole season. The way things are going, this Thanksgiving might just be as they were years ago, filled with big bass and bent rods. The past couple didn't happen this way, they were filled with many shorts. For many years, Thanksgiving was seen as the culmination of our striper run, it just might turn out to be that way this year...God willing! I hope all of you had better success than we did this weekend, we gave it an honest shot but turned out only a fair performance. I'm hoping the other clubs found the fish just as difficult as our club, maybe we placed well...I'll find out soon and let you know.

Once again, thanks to everyone for visiting my little site and helping to make it grow with your input and encouragement! I look forward to each new feature. I just started a page of definitions. I will be adding to this page as things come to mind or as people send me some definitions for that page. I almost had my message board up but ran into a problem with the registration process for users...hopefully, I can get that worked out today! Take care, keep them lines in the water and them rods bent!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent